AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11537, 23 November 1900, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

It is Paid that 80,000 elephants are required annually to supply the world with ivory. In England, near Kidderminster, a fox lost his way, and scampered through the town. After an exciting hunt a policeman impounded the animal. Recently the horses of a Cheltenham coach bolted at the sight of a motor-car, and dashing down a hill, collided with a tree. One passenger was killed and four others injured. Tho Matchless -.—Scotch farmer (who entered the train at Berwick): ''Can ony o' you gentlemen gi'e me a match?" Omnes: •' Sorry, haven t a match left." Scotch Farmer: "Oh, weel, I'll just hae to tak' ane o' my ain!" Wolves are very unpleasant neighbours, but, having killed them off, it appears that the farmers of Kansas are overrun with prairie dogs, which are eating them out of house and home. The hardest lesson for man to learn is that it does not pay to disturb the balance of nature. Not very long ago the humiliating spectacle of an incapable motor-car being dragged home by a despised horse was witnessed in Manchester. An eyewitness stated that tha horse had an evident and intelligent perception of the satire of the situation, and wore an air of consoious triumph and superiority. It is stated that the only monument to a pig known to be in existence is to be seen at Lunoborg, Hanover. At tho Hotel de Ville is, or was, a glass case containing a ham in fair preservation, while near it is a slab of black marble, with a Latin inscription :—"Passer-by, contemplate tho mortal remains of the pig which acquired for itself imperishable glory by discovering the salt springs at Luneber^. ' At a meeting of directors of a co-operative dairy company held recently in Taranaki, the only business done was to authorise the purchase of a butter-pat at a cost of less than one shilling! The meeting lasted two and three-quarter hours, and two English buyers wore in attendance to treat for the coming season's output. Cautious people these. So says the New Zealand Dairyman. In the Soudan horses are shod with socks made of camel's skin. Not long since an enterprising German invented a horseshoe of paper, prepared. by saturating with oil, turpentine, and other ingredient*- Shjp.

layers of such paper are glued to the hoof till the required thickness is attained, and the shoes thus made are durable and impenetrable by moisture. An English journal publishes the following:— prevent flies from worrying horses, take two or three handfuls of walnut leaves, and pour thereon boiling water— one pint to each handful of leaves. Let this "walnut leaf tea" cool, bottle it off, and, before the horse goes out, damp his ears and other parts most troubled by flies with the infusion, using a sponge for the purpose. Those who have tried it say that for an hour or two at least the flies will avoid the places so treated. Here is another tale that is said to illustrate the intelligence of the canine species: —A fox terrier occupied one of the front pews at a church in Melbourne, and during the early part of the service behaved with becoming decorum. But when the clergyman commenced the Second Lesson, which taken from one of the Epistles, began: 'Beware of evildoers, beware of dogs," it burst forth into such a terrific storm of howls and barks that the service had to be suspended until the irate animal was removed. The autumnal sale of wool at Birmingham was conducted by Messr3. Lythall and Walters, in conjunction with the Butchers Hide and Kool Company, at the Wool "Warehouse, Now Canal-street. There was the usual good attendance of buyers, and a clearance was effected at satisfactory prices. Shropshires sold at BJd, 82d, and some few lots 9d per lb; unwashed up to 6^l; Southdown, 9d; Merino, unwashed, Bid; lambs wool, 7id. A recent report by the directors of tne Peter Lawson and Company showed a profit on the year's trading of £1286 Os 7d, which, with the amount brought forward from last year, left the sum of £5285 17s Id to be disposed of. It was recommended that a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum on the paid capital, free of income tax, be paid on September 1, thus absorbing £1750; that £2020 12s 3d be added to the reserve fund, which will then stand at £8000; and that the balance of £1515 4s lOd bo carried forward to next year's account.

It is reported that foot-and-mouth disease has become very prevalent in France, its extension in recent months having been extremely rapid. Fairs and markets have had to be closed in the infected districts, and tho movements of live stock have been restricted. The widespread character of tho attack has stirred up tho authorities to the exercise of vigorous measures, which have already a good effect.

A correspondent of the Madras Mail has been urging people who may own a little pasture land and spare capital to take un mule breeding. Ho points out that though the industry has failed and been abandoned by natives in the Mysore State, the fact proves nothing but mistakes on tho part of thoso who took up the enterprise. They started with tho idea that any mare would do, and confidently expected the worst of worn-out screws to throw a good mule. The Madras Provincial Government is endeavouring to demonstrate " the better tho mare the better the mule," and has placed an order with a dealer for a number of Australian cob mares, to bo used at tho mulebreeding depot. The Minister of Agriculture for tho province of Quebec, Canada, has recently been examining into the manufacture of cheese m the province. Believing that there were cevlain defects in the method of manufacture now employed in the province, he has referred tho matter to a special commission. After carrying out certain experiments in Quebec, tho manufacturer and chemist in charge of tho investigation went to England to seek the co-operaticn and assistance of Mr. F. J. Lloyd, whose " Report on tho Manufacture of Cheddar Cheese," recently published by the Board of Agriculture, had attracted the attention of the Minister of Agriculture for Quebec.

Writing to a journal published in Scotland, a Canadian farmer says:Do you grew the sand vetch (ricia vellosa) in your country? Hero we find it one of the best pasture and forage crops for swine, sown either in spring or fall. When sown in spring it does bettor than the common English vetch, and, when sown in fall, mixed with rye, makes a splendid winter pasture and forage crop for both swine and cattlo. We. sow two bushels rye and one bushel sand vetch per acre about September 1. This crop grows rapidly, and, when five inches high, is ready for the hogs. The hogs may pasture on this crop all winter and early spring. About the end of May the "ground is ploughed up and sown to rape some timo in June."

In lately proposing the toast of success to the Mid-Cheshire Agricultural Society, Mr. Alfred Ashw'orth emphasised the importance of pig-growing for bacon-curing purposes. Ho said that a man had expressed his readiness to erect a bacon-curing factory in the county at a cost of £30,000, if only the countv produced a sufficient quantity of bacon to 'keep it at work. Far 100 much money was spent in the importation of bacon, which ought to be raised at Homo, and the Co-operative Wholesale Society of Manchester had set a worthy example by establishing a large factory in Ireland, with the object of supplying their customers as far as possible with home-grown in preference to foreign bacon. Not long since, in Glasgow, a horse got frightened on tho approach of a traction engine, and the result was that it backed through a shop window. The shopkeeper raised an action for damages against tho horse's owner, who pleaded that it was really tho owner of the traction engine who was at fault. The sheriff, however, found that tho owner of the horso was responsible, as his horso should not have been there till accustomed to all such sights. " Broken to motors and road engines" is now likely to be found a common phrase in sale catalogues. It appears that a somewhat novel and interesting feature was lately added to the sheep section of the Royal Dublin Society's show by Mr. Flanagan. Instead of being clipped" bare in the usual course in March last, four of the sheep—two hogget rams and two hogget ewes—included among Mr. Flanagan's exhibits had patches of the old wool left immediately behind the shoulder, and at the time of the show tins measured 19in in length in the case of the rams, and a shade over 17in in the case of the owes. As the growth of tho wool since the sheep were shorn on March 2 measured just 6in, the result showed that at twelve months old the fleeces of the sheep measured 13in and lliin in length respectively. The experiment was instructive as showing what wollbred specimens of "Ireland's only breed of sheep" are capable of accomplishing as wool producers. A correspondent adds: — "Besides, it would bo an excellent way of testing tho question so often debated— and unfair shearing." ■